Remote work has become the norm in recent times and many businesses find themselves having to offer this to keep hold of staff. While there are certainly numerous benefits for employees, you will also find that it can benefit the business in a handful of ways. This post will look at the benefits of remote work from an employer’s perspective and how it is actually a win-win.
Improve Productivity
Many assumed that productivity would fall when people started working from home, but a high percentage of companies actually reported an increase in productivity during the pandemic. Many employees are more productive from home because they are more focused, morale is higher and they can enjoy a healthier work-life balance, which can give people more energy. Additionally, utilizing new technology like human resource management systems can also boost productivity by reducing admin time so that staff can focus on more creative aspects of their role.
Reduced Costs
Another major benefit for businesses is that remote work can slash your costs, which is something that many are looking to do right now. Your energy consumption should plummet when you have teams working remotely, plus your office supply usage will drop off so you can make significant savings by switching to remote work and improve your bottom line.
Environmentally Friendly
Remote work is also a chance to reduce your environmental impact and improve your green credentials (something every business should be doing in 2022). Not only will your energy usage drop off with remote work, but you are also redoing traffic on the roads and preventing carbon emissions. Additionally, lowering paper usage will also help you to reduce your environmental impact.
Profitable
Many have found that switching to remote work has helped the business to increase profitability. This is through a combination of reduced costs and increased productivity, which allows the business to improve its output and make more money (the ultimate goal of the business!).
Create a Solid Team
Businesses need to have a solid, stable team of employees for long-term success. This is more likely to be achieved when you offer remote work because you will increase employee satisfaction levels and provide a healthy work-life balance for your team. This should keep morale high and keep your team together for longer, which can help the business to achieve long-term success (just be sure to find ways to keep your remote workers united).
As you can see, it is not just employees that can benefit from remote work and it can be a win-win. Many businesses have found the switch to be hugely positive from a business perspective because you can boost productivity, keep your employees happy, reduce your impact and even save and make more money.
Potential risks and disadvantages
Although this article aims to highlight the benefits of remote working for businesses, employers should also be aware of some of the potential risks and disadvantages for companies associated with employees working remotely from their home office located in a foreign country.
Permanent establishment (PE) being certainly top of the list but there are PE risk mitigation strategies which can be applied to bring the level down to an acceptable compromise for business agreeing to these type of arrangements.